zapit-tcp-bridge

Bridge for controlling Zapit via a local or remote TCP connection. This repo provides clients for MATLAB, Python, and Bonsai. The MATLAB TCP server exists in the main Zapit repo in zapit\+zapit\+interfaces.

Getting Started

Basics

• You will need at least Zapit version 0.12.0.
• For the client to connect to Zapit, you must start Zapit with the tcpServer enable setting in the yml file set to true.
• Ensure the code in this repo is installed on the PC that will be the client.

Connecting from a remote PC

If you wish to connect to the server from a client on a different PC, you will in addition need to:

• Find the IP address of the Zapit (server) PC with zapit.interfaces.getIPaddress
• Enter this into the TCP server IP variable in the yml settings file.
• Supply this IP address to the client using the optional ip parameter input argument. (help zapit_tcp_bridge.TCPclient)

What is this for?

Zapit is software for running a scanning opto-stim system for head-fixed mouse behaviour, written in MATLAB. There is additionally a Python bridge that allows the software to be called via Python by wrapping the key MATLAB function calls in Python.

This package provides multi-language support via a TCP/IP messaging protocol for Zapit. A TCP server can be initialised when Zapit is launched. This can be interfaced with from any language and from different machines on the same network implementing the same protocol.

In the Message Protocol document we define the protocol, to allow users to implement their own clients in whatever language or context they wish. We provide example clients in MATLAB, Python (Examples), and Bonsai (Examples).